As Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia continue to become more prevalent, it may not be long before there is a push for legalizing physician-assisted death in dementia cases in the United States. American officials must thoroughly consider the moral and social consequences of such an action, says an expert on medical ethics at Washington University in St. Louis.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that the protein behind Alzheimer’s disease shape-shifts, changing its internal structure in order to infiltrate brain cells and become toxic.

Long before Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed clinically, increasing difficulties building cognitive maps of new surroundings may herald the eventual clinical onset of the disorder, finds new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis hopes to develop bifunctional compounds that can be both therapeutic and diagnostic agents for Alzheimer’s disease. In the first role, they would block the metal-mediated formation of amyloid beta oligomers; in the second, they would be loaded with a long-lived radioistope (Cu-64) and employed as PET imaging agents.

Studying mice and tissue samples from the arteries of patients with atherosclerosis, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest this plaque accumulation is driven, at least in part, by processes similar to the plaque formation implicated in brain diseases such Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Many studies have linked more sleep to better memory,
but new research in fruit flies at Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis demonstrates that extra sleep helps the brain
overcome catastrophic neurological defects that otherwise would block
memory formation.

Highlighting a potential target in the treatment of
multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests
that triggering a protein found on the surface of brain cells may help
slow the progression of these and other neurological diseases.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has boosted
funding for the first large-scale clinical trial aimed at identifying
drugs to stop or slow Alzheimer’s disease in people who are destined to
get it. The trial is led by Randall Bateman, MD.